


Day 290

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [290]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:47:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27069598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [290]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 290

Denni had hoped the restriction would have been lifted by now. No one had come by to explain what was going on but three days ago, the templars had informed them that no one was allowed to leave trier rooms until further notice. No one had dared argue. Things were strict in the Circle but Denni had never experienced something like this before. One of the other apprentices said this sort of thing would happen if there was something happening that required a lot of templars. This was not meant as a punishment, but a result of them not having enough templars to support regular Circle activity.

Tranquil would come by twice a day to deliver food and replace chamber pots but otherwise they had had no contact with anyone outside their dormitory. They were instructed to use this time for magical study though the bolder apprentices were using the reduced supervision for more intimate pursuits. Denni had not been in the Circle long and they seemed positively shameless to her but she had to admit that with the templars watching them all hours of the day, this was as private as life got.

Denni had slept in as late today, as the wakeup bells were not ringing anymore. She had been using the extra time to sleep and explore the Fade, practicing some of the exercises Orsino had taught her to prepare for her Harrowing. Denni had planned to use the days to read up on herbology but she the dormitories were so loud she was having a hard time focusing on her books. 

Tiberius, whose parents had fled slavery in Tevinter, came to sit next to her.

“Trouble focusing?” he asked. Denni nodded.

“If I could sleep I could spend the time preparing myself for the Harrowing,” she said. “But I’ve already slept so much these past few days I’m not at all tired.”

“I actually know a sleep spell,” he said. “It’s not part of the standard curriculum but I’ve been practicing on the rats in the kitchen. They’re much easier to catch when they're asleep.”

Denni agreed. Ines would be visiting soon to evaluate her and she could not afford to waste any time she could be preparing. Tiberius seemed rather excited to have a larger target for his spells, and immediately set to work. Denni could feel the entropic energy from the Fade draining her energy. She had the briefest moment of panic at the thought that Tiberius could steal all her life force this way but that was quickly overpowered by the human’s magic and the world dimed until all was darkness.

Denni was back in the Alienage, or rather, she was in her memory of the Alienage. Becoming lucid in her dreams was one of the first things she learned after coming to the Circle. She still couldn’t control where she went but the benefit of being aware was that she could practice any of the spells she knew in a safe environment.

She was in her home with her mother who was tending the gardens. Denni would often see her mother when she dreamed. Or rather, she would see a Fade spirit in the guise of her mother. Denni still had to remind herself that nothing here was real. 

“Welcome home,” said the spirit that looked like her mother. 

Orsino had explained how to tell the difference between benign spirits and true demons while dreaming, and her false mother seemed harmless enough. She never asked to be let into Denni’s mind, never asked about her life or what the real world was like. Mostly she just wanted to talk about plants. The one thing she did ask about were the herbology books Denni was reading. Explaining things to her ‘mother’ was a great way to solidify the knowledge she was absorbing. Sometimes the spirit would talk about things she had learned in her travels about plants. Some of the things she said were more detailed than anything in the books Denni was reading and she had come to trust what the spirit said as fact. They were even able to perform dissections on the plants, looking at their inner workings in far more detail than was possible in the real world.

Even though Denni knew the spirit wasn’t really her mother, it was nice to see familiar faces in her dreams. Since she had started preparing to impress Ines, her father had appeared sometimes as well, talking about how much better things would be when she left Kirkwall, and how much he believed in her. Denni had worried it was a spirit of pride at first, trying to tempt her into a misstep, or grooming her to take her mind during the Harrowing, but it only ever offered words of encouragement. It never flattered her ego or tried to get her to reach beyond her grasp. It could be a spirit of Hope, something she had not thought to find in this place.

Denni enjoyed her time with her fake parents and woke just as everyone else was falling asleep. She was, for obvious reasons, not the least tired but since everyone was quiet now. She found an out of the way corner and read the night away by candlelight.


End file.
